Unreeling device



Nov. 14,- 1944. H. w. MOORE UNREELING DEVICE Filed Jan. 8. 1943INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY,

I or reeloi' wire to continue rotation, ing thewire, resulting -inkinks.

PatentedNov. 14, 1944 r I 2,362,920 I I UNREELING .DEVICE Harry W.Moore, Dayton, Ohio Application January 8, 1943, Serial No. 471,779

1 Claim. (Cl. 242-155) This invention relates to an unreeling' deviceand more particularly to an unreeling device adaptable for unreelingwire and other'semi-rigid materials. f

I Numerous attempts have been made .to produce devices for unreelingwire and the like. For some purposes 'this is a comparatively simplematter;

' but great difficulty is experienced'in intermittently unreeling finewire at a high rate of speed, for the reason that wire is easily kinkedand the insulation, ii any, is easily injured. Broadly, two methods havebeen used. In' the one,'the spool or reel'is rotated. When large spoolsare rotated at aihigh rate of speed and the unreelin'gbper ation stoppedalmost instantly, it can readily be seen that there will be a tendencyfor'the spool thereby snarl- Furthermore,

. extremely'sensitive and delicate devices are then remiired for themounting of the spool., It can readily be seen that ii wire having'athickness "less than the thickness of human hair is un- Iwound from aspool rotating at 5000 or 6000 R.. P. lVL, extremely sensitive bearingsare required for supporting the spool. Furthermore, the application ofbrakes to arrest the movement of the spool rotating at several thousandR; P M., especially if the spool is a comparatively large 'spo'ol woundwith much wire; presents numerous [complicated problems. Another methodoi unreeling 'wire from jspools or reels consists in the withdrawal ofthegwire endwise from a stationary spool; lems are encounteredin sodoing, in that in'spite or the fact that'the spoolis stationary, I ofmechanism is ordinarily required to "rotate in synchronism with theunwinding operation. 'When thejwithdrawal of the wire is stopped, some 1type oifbrak' vmechanism is the movement of the unreeiing mechanism;Again, this presents problems that are diificult .tosolve. I I Ariobject {of this invention'is to provide a" de-, vice for unreeling wirewherein the wire is un- 'reeled at a high, rate oispeed without ravelingand without kinking of Wire; I

Another object oifthis invention is to-nrov de a brake mechanism that,instead of ope at ng upon moving'parts of the apparatus used inunreeling the wire, is applied directly tothe wire.

Another object of this invention is to p ovide brake mechanism and.tensioning me hanism adaptedtobeladiusted into optimum position for anytyp of unreeling material.

Another object of this invention is to provide some type required toarresting the unreeling v that the wire is intermittently unwound athigh a circular plate may a device ior unreeling wire and the like,wherein the wire is not kinked and does not buckle duroperation inspiteof the fact speeds.

Other objects and advantages reside in the construction of parts, thecombination thereof and the mode of operation, as will-become moreapparent from the following description.

In the drawing, I Figure 1-is a front elevational view of the wireunreeling device.

' Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the device shown in Figure 1.

Referring to the drawing, the base 10 supports a pintleor stud, notshown, having mounted thereon a spool or reel of wire 20. In the eventthe end of the spool 20 is not smooth or round, I be mounted on top ofthe spool, which plate may have a rounded and polished edge and may beheld in symmetrical relation with respect to-the' spool 20 by a pintleor stud seated in the aperture in the end of conventional spools. Asuitable mechanism for unwinding or unreeling the wire from the spoolwill now be described. i

providedwith a suitableaperture for receiving 'a screw or' pin 32 thatis used in holding the bracket 30 in position on the standard it. Thisbracket/30 includes an arm 34 provided with a downwardly extendingprojection 36 terminating 'Similar prob- I in a supporting portion 38-,

so as toprovide a passage having welded thereto or otherwise attachedthereto a tubular member 40. The bore or opening of the tubular member40 is aligned with the-center axis of the spool 20,

I for the wire withdrawn from the spool or reel 20 around the edge ofthe spool, through the aperture or opening in the tubular member 40aligned with the longitudinal axis of rotation'of the spool. Thewire isdrawn upwardly by the device using the wire,

' whether this be a coil winding device, an armature winding machine oring'the wire. A's'the wireleaves the tubular member 40, it is drawn overa any other device utiliztension roller or brake drum 52 journalled'upon'a pintle 54, having one end threaded so as to threadedly receive atension nut 56 engaging a tension spring 58 seated against 50 a collaror washer-like member 60, exerting a "pressure against the side of theroller 52. The opposite end of the pintle 54 is fixedly attached I thearm 34 of the bracket 30. I I 1.. The.collar.'60 is provided withakeys-way have ing seated therein the end or the pin II extending intothe pintle 54. This key-way permits sliding movement or the collar 80 onthe pintle without rotary movement. From this it may be clearly seenthat the roller 52 functions as a brake drum. The braking mechanism maybe adjusted by adjusting the tension nut 58.

A roller journalled upon the pintle l2 fixedly attached in a bracket His spring urged against the roller 52. The pressure or the roller 10against the roller 52 is supplied by a spring I5, the tension orcompression of which may be ad:- Justed by a set screw 18 threadedlyengaging the standard l2. This bracket 14 is pivotally mounted at 82upon the standard l2. From this it may readily be seen that the pressureof the roller 10 upon the roller 52 may be adjusted or regulated by theadjusting screw 18. When pressure has been properly adjusted, the screw18 may be locked in position by a lock nut, not shown. The bracket 14 isprovided with an upwardly extending projection 90 provided with a wirepassage 92.

In tracing the path of the wire from the tubular member 40, the wirepasses over one quadrant of a roller or brake drum 52, then it passesbetween the rollers 52 and 10. After passing between these rollers, thewire passes and contacts one quadrant of the pressure roller 10. Fromthis it may readily be seen that the wire passes through the wirepassage 92 in an ofiset position with respect to the longitudinal axisof the spool. This offset position is equal to the sum of the radius ofthe roller 52 and the radius of the roller 18. As the wire is withdrawn,the roller 52 functions as a brake drum, so that whenever the withdrawalof the wire ceases, the roller 52 arrests the movement of the wire. -Dueto the centrifugal force of the portion of the wire looped around theedge of the rim of the spool 20, it may readily be seen that in theabsence of a braking mechanism, the wire will continue to flow. However.this has no effect upon the wire extending beyond the roller 10. Some ofthe wire may unwind from the spool 20 after the withdrawal has ceased.In order to prevent this surplus wire whipping up into the mechanism, apipe or rod I0! is fixedly attached in any suitable manner to thesupporting portion 38 of the bracket 30. Furthermore, in order toprevent the wire withdrawing from the spool from whipping outwardly anexcessive distance, a cylindrical sheet material member is preferablymounted in spaced relation from the spool, so as to completely sur roundthe spool, as is well known to those skilled in the art.

The anti-kinking unreeling device disclosed I herein has two criticaladjustments. First, the roller or the brake drum 52 must be properlyadjusted, so as to supply the proper braking action upon the wire on thereel. Whenever the braking mechanism is adjusted, the tension roller 10must also be adjusted for proper operation or the device. This tensionroller is so adjusted that the wire will pass between the roller withoutslippage of the wire on the brake drum and without slippage between therollers. By properly adjusting these two adjustments, it is possible tounwind coarse wire either with or without insulation, and extremely finewire, either with or without insulation. If the wire has delicateinsulating' material protecting the surface of the wire, it may beunreeled without marring or mutilating the wire and the insulatingmaterial and without kinking the wire. As the wire is 76 aeea'eaowithdrawn. the action or the device removes the ceiling action irom thewire and removes any tendency ior the wire to snarl and twist, in spite01' the fact that the wire is drawn from the end or the spool or reel20, so as to put. into the wire one revolution of a twist for eachconvolution on the spool. or reel. When shifting from one grade orweight of wire to another, it is merely necessary to adjust the brakingmechanism controlling the roller or brake drum 52 and to adjust thetension or pressure exerted by the roller 10 against the roller 52, sovas to properly unreel the wire.

The distance from the tubular member 40 to the reel 52 should besufficiently short to prevent the wire extending from the end of thetubular member 40 to the roller 52 from forming a loop, which wouldconstitute a potential source of a kink. By having a short distancebetween the tubular member 40 and the roller 52, the chances of kinksforming between the end of the tubular member and the roller is therebyeliminated. This tubular member functions as a straightening guide forthe wire.

Although the wire enters and leaves the wire unreeling device inparallel paths, the device could be constructed to permit the withdrawalof the wire in' a path that is in non-parallel 4 relation with respectto the path of the incoming wire.

Throughout the specification and claims, the unreeling device has beendescribed in connection with wire. It may be used for other material, asfor example, twine, cord or cable'made from other materials than wire.

Although the preferred modification of the device has been described, itwill he understood that within the purview of this invention variouschanges may be made in the form, details, proportion and arrangement ofparts, the combination thereof and mode of operation, which generallystated consist in a device capable of carrying out the objects "setforth, as disclosed and defined in the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

An anti-kinking wire unreeling device for unreeling wire axially from aspool, said wire unreeling device including supporting means, a tubularmember having the bore thereof aligned with the longitudinal axis of thespool and in short spaced relation therefrom, said tubular member beingsupported upon said supporting means, a pair of rollers the first ofwhich is supported upon said supporting means and tangentially arrangedwith respect to the longitudinal axis of said tubular member, brakingmechanism for the first roller, a bracket pivotally mounted upon saidsupporting means, the second roller being mounted upon said bracket, theaxes of the two rollers being mounted in a plane parallel to thelongitudinal axis of said tubular member, tensioning means engaging saidpivotally mount ed bracket for causing said second roller to engage theflrst roller to exert a pressure upon the wire as it passes between thetwo rollers, guide means supported upon the bracket for guiding the wireas it leaves the second roller, and a rod mounted upon said supportingmeans in close proximity to the tubular member, the longitudinal-axis ofthe rod extending in a direction nor mal to. the longitudinal axis ofthe tubular member, said rod limiting whipping movements of the wirebeyond the tubular member when the unreeling device suddenly stops.

- HARRY W. MOORE.

